The bandfishes,

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Cepolidae, are 23 species of marine

ray-finned fish Actinopterygii (; ), members of which are known as ray-finned fishes, is a class of bony fish. They comprise over 50% of living vertebrate species. The ray-finned fishes are so called because their fins are webs of skin supported by bony or hor ...

es, They are native to the East

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

and

Indo-Pacific The Indo-Pacific is a vast biogeographic region of Earth. In a narrow sense, sometimes known as the Indo-West Pacific or Indo-Pacific Asia, it comprises the tropical waters of the Indian Ocean, the western and central Pacific Ocean, and the ...

wherethey dig burrows in sandy or muddy seabeds and eat

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

Taxonomy

The bandfishes belong to the family Cepolidae, which is the only member of the

superfamily SUPERFAMILY is a database and search platform of structural and functional annotation for all proteins and genomes. It classifies amino acid sequences into known structural domains, especially into SCOP superfamilies. Domains are functional, str ...

Cepoloidea in the

suborder Order ( la, ordo) is one of the eight major hierarchical taxonomic ranks in Linnaean taxonomy. It is classified between family and class. In biological classification, the order is a taxonomic rank used in the classification of organisms and ...

Percoidei of the

order Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * Heterarchy, a system of organization wherein the elements have the potential to be ranked a number of d ...

Perciformes. The family was created in 1810 by the French naturalist

Constantine Samuel Rafinesque Constantine Samuel Rafinesque-Schmaltz (; October 22, 1783September 18, 1840) was a French 19th-century polymath born near Constantinople in the Ottoman Empire and self-educated in France. He traveled as a young man in the United States, ultimat ...

. The placement of the Cepolidae within the Perciformes is not agreed by all authors, some authors place the family with the Priacanthidae in the order

Priacanthiformes The Priacanthiformes is a proposed order of marine ray-finned fishes. The order comprises two families, the Priacanthidae and the Cepolidae, which bear very little morphological similarity to each other but which have been shown to be sister taxa i ...

, an order which is considered to be '' incertae sedis'' within the series

Eupercaria Percomorpha () is a large clade of ray-finned fish that includes the Scombroidei, tuna, Syngnathiformes, seahorses, gobies, Cichlidae, cichlids, flatfish, Labridae, wrasse, Perciformes, perches, Lophiiformes, anglerfish, and Tetraodontiformes, pu ...

Subfamilies and genera

The family Cepolidae has 23 species which are arranged into two

subfamilies In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

and three

genera Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...

as follows: * Subfamily

Cepolinae Cepolinae is one of two subfamilies of marine ray-finned fish belonging to family Cepolidae, the bandfishes. Taxonomy Cepolinae was named by the French polymath Constantine Samuel Rafinesque as the family Cepolidae. It became a subfamily when th ...

Rafinesque, 1815 ** Genus ''

Acanthocepola ''Acanthocepola'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the family Cepolidae the bandfishes. They are native to the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Acanthocepola'' is classified within the subfamily Cepolin ...

Bleeker Bleeker is a Dutch occupational surname. Bleeker is an old spelling of ''(linnen)bleker'' ("linen bleacher").Cepola ''Cepola'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the bandfish family, Cepolidae. The name red bandfish is applied to all members of this genus, but particularly ''C. macrophthalma'', and generally not ''C. australis'', which is al ...

'' Linnaeus, 1764 *Subfamily

Owstoninae ''Owstonia'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cepolidae, the bandfishes. It is the only genus in the monotypic subfamily Owstoninae. They are found in deep-waters of the Indian and Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Owstonia'' ...

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Rive ...

Tanaka is the fourth most common Japanese name, Japanese surname. It is typically written with the kanji for . Less common variants include , , , , and . People with the surname *, Japanese musician formerly known as Boku no Lyric no Bōyomi *, Japane ...

& Snyder, 1913 ** Genus ''

Owstonia ''Owstonia'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cepolidae, the bandfishes. It is the only genus in the monotypic subfamily Owstoninae. They are found in deep-waters of the Indian and Pacific Ocean. Taxonomy ''Owstonia ...

'' Tanaka, 1908 Some authorities recognise an additional two genera ''Pseudocephala'' and ''Sphenanthias'' but these are regarded as

synonyms A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are all ...

of ''Owstonia'' by others.

Etymology

The family name, Cepolidae, is derived from the name coined in 1764 by Linnaeus for the type genus, ''Cepola'' and means "little onion", Linnaeus did not explain why he chose this name. It is likely derived from ''cepollam'' or ''cepulam'', which in 1686 was said by Francis Willughby to be local names among

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

fishermen for the similar "''Fierasfer"'', a pearlfish, to which Linnaeus believed ''

Cepola macrophthalma ''Cepola macrophthalma'' is a species of marine ray-finned fish belonging to the family Cepolidae, the bandfishes. It is found in the eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean from Senegal north to the British Isles. This species is known as the red ba ...

'' was related. As well as this, in 1872

Giovanni Canestrini Giovanni Canestrini (26 December 1835 – 14 February 1900) was an Italian naturalist and biologist and translator who was a native of Revò. Career He initially studied in Gorizia and Meran, then furthered his education in natural sciences at ...

reported that in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

the common name for ''C. macropthalma'' is ''Pesce cipolia'' meaning “onion fish”.

Homonymy

The name Cepolidae Rafinesque, 1815 is a senior

homonym In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...

for the family

Cepolidae The bandfishes, family Cepolidae, are 23 species of marine ray-finned fishes, They are native to the East Atlantic and Indo-Pacific wherethey dig burrows in sandy or muddy seabeds and eat zooplankton. Taxonomy The bandfishes belong to the famil ...

Ihering, 1909 a family of land snails belonging to the superfamily

Helicoidea Helicoidea is a taxonomic superfamily of air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusks in the clade Stylommatophora. Taxonomy 2005 taxonomy There are 19 families within the superfamily Helicoidea according to the ta ...

. The case needs be submitted to the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

to resolve the

homonymy In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...

Timeline

ImageSize = width:1000px height:auto barincrement:15px PlotArea = left:10px bottom:50px top:10px right:10px Period = from:-65.5 till:10 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:-65.5 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:-65.5 TimeAxis = orientation:hor AlignBars = justify Colors = #legends id:CAR value:claret id:ANK value:rgb(0.4,0.3,0.196) id:HER value:teal id:HAD value:green id:OMN value:blue id:black value:black id:white value:white id:cenozoic value:rgb(0.54,0.54,0.258) id:paleogene value:rgb(0.99,0.6,0.32) id:paleocene value:rgb(0.99,0.65,0.37) id:eocene value:rgb(0.99,0.71,0.42) id:oligocene value:rgb(0.99,0.75,0.48) id:neogene value:rgb(0.999999,0.9,0.1) id:miocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.999999,0) id:pliocene value:rgb(0.97,0.98,0.68) id:quaternary value:rgb(0.98,0.98,0.5) id:pleistocene value:rgb(0.999999,0.95,0.68) id:holocene value:rgb(0.999,0.95,0.88) BarData= bar:eratop bar:space bar:periodtop bar:space bar:NAM1 bar:space bar:period bar:space bar:era PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 shift:(7,-4) bar:periodtop from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:

Paleocene The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...

from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...

from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio. from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text:

Pleist. The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H. bar:eratop from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

Paleogene The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...

from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:

Neogene The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...

from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q. PlotData= align:left fontsize:M mark:(line,white) width:5 anchor:till align:left color:eocene bar:NAM1 from: -55.8 till: 0 text:

Cepola ''Cepola'' is a genus of marine ray-finned fishes belonging to the bandfish family, Cepolidae. The name red bandfish is applied to all members of this genus, but particularly ''C. macrophthalma'', and generally not ''C. australis'', which is al ...

PlotData= align:center textcolor:black fontsize:M mark:(line,black) width:25 bar:period from: -65.5 till: -55.8 color:paleocene text:

from: -55.8 till: -33.9 color:eocene text:

from: -33.9 till: -23.03 color:oligocene text:

from: -23.03 till: -5.332 color:miocene text:

from: -5.332 till: -2.588 color:pliocene text: Plio. from: -2.588 till: -0.0117 color:pleistocene text:

from: -0.0117 till: 0 color:holocene text: H. bar:era from: -65.5 till: -23.03 color:paleogene text:

from: -23.03 till: -2.588 color:neogene text:

from: -2.588 till: 0 color:quaternary text: Q.

Characteristics

The bandfishes are characterised by the possession of a continuous

dorsal fin A dorsal fin is a fin located on the back of most marine and freshwater vertebrates within various taxa of the animal kingdom. Many species of animals possessing dorsal fins are not particularly closely related to each other, though through conv ...

with anything between 0 and 4 spines, frequently 3, spines and an

anal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

which has 0 to 2 spines. The

lanceolate The following is a list of terms which are used to describe leaf morphology in the description and taxonomy of plants. Leaves may be simple (a single leaf blade or lamina) or compound (with several leaflets). The edge of the leaf may be regular o ...

caudal fin Fins are distinctive anatomical features composed of bony spines or rays protruding from the body of a fish. They are covered with skin and joined together either in a webbed fashion, as seen in most bony fish, or similar to a flipper, as se ...

is usually joined to the dorsal and anal fins. There is a single pair of postcleithra and there are 6 branchiostegal rays. The

lateral line The lateral line, also called the lateral line organ (LLO), is a system of sensory organs found in fish, used to detect movement, vibration, and pressure gradients in the surrounding water. The sensory ability is achieved via modified epithelial ...

lies along the base of the dorsal fin. The epineural ribs in some of the vertebrae of the

trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Computing * Trunk (software), in rev ...

are fused where they are closest to the corresponding pleural ribs. The overall colour of the body s normally red or pink. The maximum length attained is in '' Cepola rubescens''. They have a large oblique mouth, normally equipped with a single row of thin weakly curved teeth on each jaw, there are no vomerine teeth or palatine teeth. They have large eyes. They have

cycloid scales A fish scale is a small rigid plate that grows out of the skin of a fish. The skin of most jawed fishes is covered with these protective scales, which can also provide effective camouflage through the use of reflection and colouration, as we ...

which have crenulated edges. The distal pelvic fin rays are unbranched, the remaining proximal four rays are branched.

Distribution

The bandfishes are found in the Eastern Atlantic Ocean, including the

Mediterranean Sea The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the ea ...

and the Indo-West Pacific region, as far south as New Zealand.

Biology

The bandfishes are mostly

fossorial A fossorial () animal is one adapted to digging which lives primarily, but not solely, underground. Some examples are badgers, naked mole-rats, clams, meerkats, and mole salamanders, as well as many beetles, wasps, and bees. Prehistoric eviden ...

, creating burrows in areas with fine sand or mud substrates. They leave these burrows to feed on

in the water column. The lay

pelagic The pelagic zone consists of the water column of the open ocean, and can be further divided into regions by depth (as illustrated on the right). The word ''pelagic'' is derived . The pelagic zone can be thought of as an imaginary cylinder or wa ...

eggs.

Cultural references

The oldest recipe by a named author involves the preparation of a bandfish. The original recipe book, by

Mithaecus Mithaecus (Ancient Greek: Μίθαικος) was a cook and cookbook author of the late 5th century BC. A Greek-speaking native of Sicily at a time when the island was rich and highly civilized, Mithaecus is credited with having brought knowledge of ...

, is now lost, but the recipe itself survives thanks to being quoted in the

Deipnosophistae The ''Deipnosophistae'' is an early 3rd-century AD Greek work ( grc, Δειπνοσοφισταί, ''Deipnosophistaí'', lit. "The Dinner Sophists/Philosophers/Experts") by the Greek author Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of liter ...

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q806308 Percoidei Taxa named by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque